I originally posted this synopsis of The 7 habits of highly effective people back in 2009. To mark the recent passing of its great author Stephen Covey I felt it would be appropriate to repost it here today. I highly recommend his book (7 Habits) to any business owner and certainly to all my clients. It contains simple, straight forward, common sense habits that will help anyone who is running a business. I have modified the time quadrant to be represented by seats in a car (Image inserted below) and will blog this separately at some point... Anyway, here is a brief synopsis of the book written by a wise and amazing man... Stephen R. Covey 1932 - 2012

Ten Strategies for Time Management
1. The first step is being aware of where your time is going, now.
You can’t find something you’ve lost when you don’t know where you might have lost it in the first place. So the first strategy for managing your time is to know where it’s going, now. That means actually tracking or logging your time daily, for at least 1-week (preferably 2). Track the exact time you begin and end an activity, make a note of the duration in exact minutes, and a few words to describe the activity. This step requires you to be really honest with yourself and track EVERYTHING you do in your work day so you can see where your time is really going -- so if you spent 23 minutes chatting with co-workers at the coffee machine (no cheating by logging all your time in nice, even 15, 30 or 60 minute intervals) -- write it down exactly.

Here is a summary of the 21 Great Ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster. Review these rules and principles regularly until they become firmly ingrained in your thinking and actions and your future will be guaranteed.

1) Realize that time management is a myth.
No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn't change. All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.

It’s actually sad to see brilliant and hardworking business owners spin their wheels and not get anywhere because they simply don’t know how to focus. Sound like you? I have coached numerous different business owners who have had Jugglers Syndrome (JS) to varying degrees, so I have learnt the best way to coach them.

You don't know how to say No to a person then please learn because a single Yes can eat up your fruitful quality time.
1) If you don't know how to say NO, people will take undue advantage of you. At office you will be bogged down with work and others will enjoy while you will be doing their stuff.

6 ways to stop being late
1. Schedule and block.Put the appointment in your calendar and block out the duration of the engagement. This way you will not create overlapping commitments that will get you into a time trap.

A large part of our time is consumed by attention topaperwork of various kinds, in both our business and personal lives. How effectively we deal with all that paper will influence what we can accomplish in terms of our personal growth and development.